Longbourn
Jo Baker
2013
Many women I know have read Pride and Prejudice over and over again. The clever girl enticing the class-bound gentleman and the circumstances of being a woman in any age have held sway for millions of readers for decades. Jo Baker has bravely taken up the Bennet story centering on the lives of the small servant group that serves the family. The timing is the same as Austen's masterpiece, so we are treated to glimpses of the Bennet girls' courtship. But the focus is on a young girl who serves as Elizabeth's maid. Her limited options, since she was born an orphan, are balanced by the memories she had of a family before she was rescued by the head cook from the orphanage. There is enough romance and reality to engage most ardent Austen fans.
The limited resources of the Bennet's give Baker an opportunity to explore the whole household as the staff plays many roles. She also adds gritty details that bring to life the times and the more personal chores the servants had to perform. To imagine the intimate dance the classes play is fascinating human play without the varnished sheen of a "Downtown Abbey."
Jo Baker studied English literature at Oxford, but was not inspired to write full-time until moving to Ireland in the mid-1990s. Her first book Offcomer was published in 2002.
Same Shelf:
Death Comes to Pemberley
P.D. James
